Gauteng North A rallied with iron-fisted determination to seal their seventh successive Pick n Pay SA Women’s Inter-Provincial title in the A Division, while Gauteng B celebrated a hard-earned promotion from the B Division at Port Elizabeth Golf Club on Friday.

A Division leaders Gauteng North A enjoyed another successful day at Port Elizabeth Golf Club, but the defending champions can hardly afford to relax after Western Province A moved within striking distance at the Pick n Pay SA Women’s Inter-Provincial on Thurday.

Gauteng North A were simply superior at Port Elizabeth Golf Club on Wednesday and strengthened their title bid in this year's Pick n Pay South African Women's Inter-Provincial with a decisive 8-1 victory against Gauteng North B, while Western Province A and Gauteng A ended in stalemate at 4.5 points each.

It has played out as predicted and the Western Province and Gauteng know they are in for an uphill battle after Tuesday’s qualifier round left two Gauteng North teams in contention for this year’s Pick n Pay SA Women’s IPT title race at Port Elizabeth Golf Club on Wednesday.

Gunning for their seventh consecutive victory, Gauteng North doubled their odds to extend their dominance in the prestigious women’s team competition when the A team claimed the Jean Tindall Memorial Trophy and the B team also qualified for the top section of the A Division.

Gauteng North have that September swagger again.
It is time for the annual Pick n Pay South African Women’s Inter-Provincial and the defending champions are primed to extend their six year dominance in the country’s most prestigious team championship at Port Elizabeth Golf Club from 24-27 September.

Nelson Mandela Bay will be awash with the country’s top women golfers when the 53rd Pick n Pay SA Womens Inter-Provincial tees off at Port Elizabeth Golf Club from 24-27 September.

The 18-hole championship layout will provide the stage for four days of intense competition between 16 A- and B- Division teams contesting glory in the country’s largest national team championship.

Top junior Ji Sun Kang hopes the mental lessons she learned from three days of tough international competition at the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy will pay off handsomely at the Pick n Pay SA Women’s Inter-Provincial from 24-27 September.

Ji Sun Kang held on to the top 10, but Zander Gous is finding out first hand just why the world’s top professionals also struggled to break par during the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St George’s in Sandwich, England.

The two South Africans are competing in the 13th edition of the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy , where they have had to deal with a tough course, talented opponents and very windy conditions over the first two days of the prestigious invitation-only 54-hole stroke play event.

South African juniors Ji Sun Kang and Zander Gous survived a very cold and windy day at Royal St George’s in Sandwich and were delighted to finish within striking distance of the first round leader at the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy in England on Tuesday.

Reigning Nomads SA Girls Champion Kang braved the gusting winds to shoot a 76 and tie for ninth, while Nomads SA Boys U-19 champion Gous went around the challenging links layout in 78 strokes to claim a share of 19^th.

Reigning Nomads South Africa’s SA Boys and SA Girls champions, Zander Gous and Ji Sun Kang, will join the hunt for glory in the 13th edition of the Duke of York Young Champions Trophy at the Royal St. George Golf Club in Sandwich, England on Tuesday.

Entry into this exclusive 54-hole stroke play event is by invitation only, with spots reserved only for the current holders of Under-18 National Championships or players who have won some major golfing event in the preceding year.

Eight of South Africa’s top amateurs claimed a clean sweep in the Mens and Womens competitions at in the University of St Andrews 600^thAnniversary Invitational in Scotland this weekend.

Nobuhle Dlamini, Kim Williams, Lara Weinstein and Emma-Jo du Bruyn representing the University of Pretoria’s HPC Womens Team took the overall lead in the second round and successfully held on to win the Womens Competition, while the HPC Mens side claimed a wire-to-wire victory in the invitation-only quadrangle tournament against St Andrews University, the Scottish Golf Union (SGU) and the Scandinavian School of Golf.

The HPC Womens team produced a mixed bag of results in the first round of the University of St Andrews 600^thAnniversary Invitational, while Zander Lombard and Werner van Niekerk helped the HPC Mens Team to a seven shot lead in Scotland on Thursday.

The HPC Womens Team are competing against teams from the University of St Andrews, the Scottish Golf Union and the Scandinavian School of Golf in Sweden in an exclusive 72-hole quadrangle tournament in St Andrews, to commemorate the University’s 600^th anniversary.

Just a few weeks after her debut in the Girls British Amateur Open Championship in England, South Africa’s leading junior Bianca Theron applied the experience gained at Fairhaven Golf Club in Lytham and St Annes to claim a two shot victory in the weather-reduced Southern Cape Championship in George on Sunday.

When you talk about women’s golf, the list of names that pop up might include Nancy Lopez, Karrie Webb, Lorena Ochoa, Imbee Park and Ai Miyazato. However, one name is never left off the list….former world number one, Annika Sorenstam, whose achievements still rank her as one of the most successful female golfers in history.

Womens Golf SA president Cynthia Rayner had the opportunity to observe Sorenstam when she accompanied top SA juniors Bianca Theron and Magda Kruger to the Annika Invitational Europe this August.

Former SA number one Bertine Strauss proved she is still a force to be reckoned with when she came from behind to steal victory in the Ekurhuleni 54-Hole Stroke Play Championship on Monday.

The 21-year-old from Koster in the North West Province dominated the local amateur scene for many years until she took up a golf scholarship at the University of Texas in August 2011. The psychology student just couldn’t resist the temptation to test herself against South Africa’s top ranked amateurs during her summer break home.

Nicole Garcia may have barely made the cut at the Mannings Heath Golf Club, but following the reprieve, the South African knuckled down to claim a top 25 finish in her English Womens Amateur Stroke Play debut in Sussex, England.

Disappointed after an opening 81, Garcia improved by six shots with a second round 75 to make the cut to 36 and ties on the number on 12-over-par 156. A third round 76 still left her hovering around the lower echelons of the leaderboard, but the 22-year-old Ekurhuleni golfer put everything she learned into producing a final round 73 that lifted her to joint 21^st on 17-over-par 305.

South Africa’s Magda Kruger and Bianca Theron completed the final round of the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden on Friday and will be off to the United Kingdom this weekend to prepare for the Girls British Open Amateur Championship at the Fairhaven Golf Club in Lytham St. Annes from 12-16 August.

– KwaZulu-Natal’s Michaela Fletcher claimed a share of third at the RB German Junior in Germany while compatriot Lara Weinstein shot to sixth in the final round at the Heddesheim Golf Club in Gut Neuzenhof on Thursday.

The 17-year-old golfer carded earlier rounds of 72 and 69 to move into the top three and closed with a 74 to finish on one-under-par 215, alongside Sunna Vidisdottir from Iceland in the World Junior Golf Series event.

South Africa’s Magda Kruger stayed within striking distance of the lead in the second round of the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden on Thursday.

On a day when only 10 players in the field of 71 juniors could break par, the Gauteng North golfer followed an opening 70 with a four-over-par 74 to move to eighth on even-par 144. Kruger lags five shots behind 36-hole leader Celia Barquin from Spain, who carded a two under 70 to take the sole lead on five-under-par 139.

It was touch and go for a while, but South Africa’s Nicole Garcia survived the cut at the English Womens Amateur Stroke Play in England and now the Ekurhuleni golfer will use the reprieve to soak up as much experience as possible over the next two days of play at Mannings Heath Golf Club in Sussex.

The 22-year-old from Ekurhuleni said her patience was tested as she waited to hear where the cut to 36 and ties would fall.

“I carded rounds of 81 and 75, so I was sitting on the bubble at 12-over-par 156,” Garcia said. To her delight, she made the cut-off point on the number.